January 2009

• [Design] on the game mechanics of open questing Siege)
• • RANT: The Future of Quests Mike Rozak
  • • RANT: The Future of Quests Amanda Walker
    • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] cruise
      • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Amanda Walker
        • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Mike Sellers
        • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] John Buehler
        • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] cruise
          • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] John Buehler
          • Wikia MUD project Raph Koster
          • • Wikia MUD project Nabil Maynard
            • • Wikia MUD project Raph Koster
            • Wikia MUD project Peter Harkins
        • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Mike Oxford
        • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] cruise
          • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Damion Schubert
            • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Threshold
              • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] John Buehler
              • • Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests] Mike Sellers
    • RANT: The Future of Quests Mike Sellers
      Mike Rozak wrote:
      > ...
      > And, to tell the truth, if you can generate enough emotional
      > attachment that the player cares about the old woman, you
      > don't need to use the "Saving the world from the evil
      > overlord" card at all. Saving the world is kind of like the
      > ultimate emotional cop-out for poor writing/design because,
      > by implication, saving the world saves everything in the
      > world.
      
      Ding! We have a winner! "Saving the world" is a huge crutch just as you
      say. The key isn't to find more and better ways for players to save the
      village, kingdom, or world, but to find more and better ways for the
      individuals (PCs and NPCS) in the world to mean as much to them *as if* they
      were saving the world.
      
      > While procedural quests work as filler, you can't create a
      > procedural quest with the impact of the old-lady quest
      > because your procedural-quest-generating algorithms don't
      > sufficiently understand emotions and human reality.
      
      Until they do. Others have written about the NPCs themselves generating
      needs and tasks (aka "quests" -- I've really come to dislike that word in
      this context) that are meaningful to them and to the players. Having a bona
      fide emotional connection between the player and the NPC(s) is part of this.
      
      
      > Procedurally-generated quests have the emotional depth of an
      > obnoxious male teenager on a power trip.
      
      Could that be because most of them are written primarily by those who are
      emotionally still obnoxious male teenagers on power trips?
      
      > Because MMORPGs have degraded into catering almost
      > exclusively for such players, people that play MMORPGs (and
      > worse, people that design MMORPGs) think that all there is to
      > a quest is a contract: "You kill X, and I give you Y."
      >
      > PS - This rant was inspired by Warhammer Online.
      
      Good rant. As with the best rants, this one also highlights the way out of
      this particular design cul-de-sac.
      
      Mike Sellers
    • • RANT: The Future of Quests Damion Schubert
      • • RANT: The Future of Quests Mike Rozak
• [DESIGN] How big is enough? Ian Hess
• • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Mike Rozak
  • • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Mike Oxford
    • • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Vincent Archer
      • • [DESIGN] How big is enough? szii@sziisoft.com
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Siege)
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Threshold
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? David Johansson
  • [DESIGN] How big is enough? Roger Durañona Vargas
• Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago
• • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Jon Mayo
  • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Jeffrey Kesselman
  • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Chris White
  • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Mike Oxford
  • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago
    • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Jeffrey Kesselman
      • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Mike Oxford
        • • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago
        • Persisting a MUD state with plain binary serialization Tiago.matias@gmail.com
• [DESIGN] Clojure? Matt Cruikshank
• • [DESIGN] Clojure? Richard Tew
  • • [DESIGN] Clojure? Matt Cruikshank